


Lantern

by Faiz



Series: Cold Bodies [2]
Category: Daft Punk
Genre: Cold Bodies!verse, Electroma, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-07-01
Packaged: 2018-02-06 22:59:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1875678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faiz/pseuds/Faiz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is set before the beginning of my other fic "Cold Bodies" (Which to best understand this fic, you should read Cold Bodies)</p><p>Set when Thomas and co. were around eight years old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lantern

Thomas ignored the raw feeling on his knees as he and his friends continued to dig their fingers into the sand and piling it up using the old and worn plastic tools that had been in the village for who knows how many years, being passed on from child to child when the previous ones grew too old to be playing in the sand and had to join the rest of the community doing work and keeping them all alive. But Thomas and his friends were still young, none of them even past the age of 8 as they continued to build their grand sandcastle, mostly unaware of the hardships that their own little community faced.

Julian had snuck off with a bright red pail, hoping to sneak some water from the spring, which they were currently not allowed to take water from. The summer had been sweltering and the water levels were much lower than normal. Panda was content with digging the moat around their impressive structure while Pharrell was waiting for Julian to return with water so he could reinforce his own castle tower. Thomas, despite helping Panda Bear with his moat digging, had his mind wandering elsewhere. His mother wasn’t at home with him or his father at the moment, because she had gone out with many other people away from their settlement to go get them more supplies. He missed his mother a lot, and while he loved his dad, it wasn’t quite the same. 

“I’ve got the water! And sand, cuz I had to keep it hidden.” Julian announced trotting over them trying to keep the pail steady in his arms.

Sure enough, the water in the pail wasn’t pure water, but a thick, gloopy mixture of sand and water. They used that to continue the work of their mighty sandcastle until the hot sun began to fall behind the clouds and a chill began to creep up their backs. After Panda had sneezed and nearly toppled over onto their castle, all four boys quickly decided that now would be a good time to go home. Pharrell took Panda Bear by the hand and practically dragged the boy across the settlement to their own homes while Julian and Thomas ran towards their neighboring homes.

“You should sleep over!” Julian chirped as they ran. “Your dad will let you! He always does!”

Thomas nodded. He slept over at Julian’s house often enough, even when one of his parents were still at home. Thomas left Julian for a few moments to trot up to his own home and stuck his head in through the open doorway.

“Dad! I’m sleeping over at Julian’s!” He announced loudly.

“Fine, don’t get into trouble!” Was the simple call back. 

Thomas turned to grin at Julian and they both ran into his house and scrambled up the ladder leading to Julian’s attic bedroom. The chill was already starting to creep into the house when Julian’s mother called for them to get into bed before they caught a bad cold. Thomas already had plenty of his own clothes strewn about the other boy’s bedroom, so it was no problem finding a pair of pajamas and hopping into bed. He hadn’t even realized how tired he was until he was nestled underneath the piles of blankets to protect them from the cold.  
Julian had practically fallen asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow, so Thomas was silent as his own eyes began to droop. He hoped that his mother was okay, and that she’d come home soon. He liked Mrs. Casablancas’ cooking, and she was super nice as well, but it wasn’t the same as his own mother. He wanted to see her again, badly. When his eyes finally drifted shut, he had dreamt that he had been playing in the spring in the middle of the oasis with his friends. He had a little toy boat, and he had stuck it into the water so it could float. But the little boat began to drift away, until it finally toppled over in the middle of the spring. He couldn’t go after it, because it was too deep there and he wasn’t allowed to go that far. He could only watch it disappear from sight.

He was being shaken awake by someone who wasn’t Julian, and when Thomas blearily opened his eyes, he was met with his father standing over him. Thomas’ eyes widened more in confusion and saw that Julian was still fast asleep next to him. He looked over at his dad again, who tousled his hair lightly. 

“Come on, we need to get going.”

“Going? Where?” Thomas asked. 

“People have gotten home.”

“Oh...Should I wake up Julian?”

“No, no. Let him sleep. His mother will wake him up.”

Thomas changed quickly and climbed down the ladder and followed his dad outside. The sun was just coming up again and the temperature was already starting to rise back up. They weren’t the only ones out either, people were going towards the entrance to help get the supplies and to see their loved ones again. There was an air of nervous tension and excitement combined with worry. Thomas stayed close to his father, and saw Panda Bear a ways off walking slowly with his grandmother. Thomas bit his lip. Panda Bear didn’t have parents anymore. They died two years ago while they were outside. Panda and his grandmother still always stopped by to see people arrive though, and Thomas wasn’t sure why. Panda always looked like he was about to cry when they did this.

“Come on Thomas.” His dad put a hand on his shoulder and Thomas sped up slightly.

When they arrived to the crowd in front of the entrance, Thomas’ dad left him to go and help people get supplies. Thomas stood alone, watching the crowd. He was scanning the area for his mother, hoping to find her quickly. But there were too many people, and he was a bit on the short side so he couldn’t see anything. He nearly jumped when Panda Bear was suddenly beside him, looking nervous as he messed with the hem of his shirt. 

Thomas smiled at him, but they stayed silent as Thomas continued to watch the crowd. He could tell that Panda was watching as well, hoping to help Thomas find her. The crowd was already starting to disperse and Thomas was wondering where Julian and Pharrell were as well, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. Panda was already starting to have tears well up in the corner of his eyes. He wiped them away quickly.

“My mama’s gonna be fine...Right?” Thomas asked in a wavering voice.

Panda could only manage a shrug as tears still threatened to fall. 

Thomas began to shake as he saw only his father approaching him with a somber expression on his face. He could see the looks of the other people in the crowd too, they were sad. They all knew. Thomas’ vision was going blurry and soon he was enveloped in a tight hug by his father, and he started to sob. He could feel his dad crying into his shoulder as well, and he barely even knew what to do with his own emotions. Nothing was really registering, except for the fact that he knew that he never wanted to let go of his dad, and that he really couldn’t stop crying.

He felt a smaller hand on his shoulder, and he turned his head slightly to see Panda Bear looking at him with tears falling down his own splotchy red cheeks. He held out his hand to Panda, and the other boy clasped it in his own hand tightly. Soon enough, Thomas’ father had to wipe away his own tears and continue helping the group put away supplies, but Thomas practically didn’t let go of Panda’s hand that day. He has glad he wasn’t his father. When you were an adult and lived here, you had to quickly get over any grief and continue to help the people who were still alive. Going outside of the settlement was a risk everyone in their lives take, so spending too much time crying over someone dying was a waste of time. But when you were young, you could still cry and be sad as much as you want. And Thomas was. He wanted to see his mother walk in with her happy grin and for her to pick him up and to tell him it was going to be okay.

But she didn’t.

She was dead.

Thomas didn’t know how she had died. No one had ever told him. At first it was because he was too young, but later on in life, he didn’t even want to know anymore.

He held Panda’s hand on the night they had a small service for the people who had passed away, and even though his fingers were numb and cold, he still clutched Panda’s hand tightly as he and his father lit the wick of a small sky lantern and set it off into the sky with the rest of them. Julian and Pharrell were there too, but it wasn’t the same. They both still had their parents, they didn’t know what it was like. Not really. He kept his eye on the soft colored lantern as it floated away, and he imagined his own mother flying along with it, hopefully going to some place nice. Panda squeezed his hand back, and Thomas broke his gaze from the lantern and turned to look at him.

Neither of them could say anything, so they looked back up at the lanterns in silence.


End file.
